Wafi City, a part of Dubai’s diversified conglomerates received a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Rating for its District Cooling Chiller Plant ONE (DCCP ONE) building on 7 th June, 2006. Engineers and Project Managers for DCCP ONE, Green Technologies FZCO, who were also the LEED Consultants, appealed this
award in August 2006, to successfully defend their application, for a LEED ® Gold, making the project to be one of the first utility buildings to receive such recognition. This is also the first building in the Middle East which has been awarded a LEED® Gold Rating. LEED® is based on Industry standards of the USA and is developed by the U.S
Green Building Council. It emphasizes state of the art strategies for Sustainable Site Development, Water Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Material Selection and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). The LEED® Rating System attributes 25% of the credits to Energy, 22% to Indoor Environmental Quality and the remaining to Water Conservation, Sustainable Site and application of Renewable Materials. As far as Energy and IEQ are concerned, the LEED® standard is based on ASHRAE 90.1 and 62 respectively. The DCCP ONE’s energy rating surpasses the ASHRAE 90.1 Std. energy benchmark by more than 30%. The Project also used low VOC materials, Waterless urinals, light pollution reduction techniques, high efficiency Cooling Towers, alternative transportation system, Waste Management Systems, to name a few among many critical steps to achieve the Gold Award.